Sunderland ‘agree’ transfer fee for young defender tipped to become fully-fledged international - report

Sunderland are said to be closing in on the signing of Australian defender Nectarios Triantis following interest from multiple clubs.

The 20-year-old centre-back has two years left on his contract with A-League side Central Coast Mariners, the club he joined last summer.

Triantis has helped the Mariners reach the A-League final, which will be played this weekend against Melbourne City, yet BEIN Sport are reporting it will be his last game for the club.

The report claims Sunderland have agreed a fee of around $500,000 for Triantis and have been tracking the Australian Under-20 international for some time.

After impressing during his first season with the Mariners, the defender has reportedly attracted interest from several clubs across Europe.

When asked about Triantis’ future, Mariners owner Richard Peil said: “I’m not going to confirm or deny any rumours at the moment - I just want to let the players play their game.

“Like every off-season they’ll be players coming in and players going out, that we guarantee. We’ll make some comments post the grand final.”

Sunderland’s Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman said last week the club have been tracking players for over a year and are hoping to complete deals early this summer.

“I don’t know if we can always take our time,” said Speakman. “I’m not really sure if that is ever going to satisfy.

“We will always like to be as early as possible to recruiting players because I think it gives us the most preparation time, and we have pre-season for a reason.

“It’s not always possible and you have to be able to find the right player at the right moment, and it has to fit for both themselves and for us.

“I certainly think by being really well organised and planned as we have been, we can go into this window literally from the moment the January window finished.

“Some of our recruitment work and scouting has been going on, some of the players we’re engaging with at the moment has been going on for the last year.

“We certainly want to see some of that hard work come to the forefront and hopefully we can see some more exciting players playing a brand of football at the Stadium of Light.”